Raw Voting Data Now Available (ie da Feedback)

I have uploaded, in CSV format, everyone's Public & Peer Votes. The two Peer files will show you how your fellow devs thought of your game. The Public votes contains the feedback of public, for those that left feedback -- minus their name, IP, and email. Please note I left their scores for you to glance at when reviewing their feedback. The FINAL scores which we post are the OFFICIAL results, so don't have a cow if you notice differences in your RAW data vs the Auditor's data.

The Public files also contain the demographics info. This is the info that I hope people will be able to analyze to give us a good perspective of our voting public.

Just for fun, if you'ld like to post some of the memorable feedback messages from your voters, feel free in this thread.

One last thing... As mentioned above, the OFFICIAL results are still with the Auditors, along with the Judges Results. I will ask all of you NOT to discuss who won what so as not to spoil our Award's Show.

Anyhow, I am posting the data now, because everyone did a fine job.... and it is one thing now off my list of to-dos (just 88 more to go!)

This is great! Carlos, the availability of these scores and comments, survey details etc is a big step forward for the uDG contest. Thank you. (I assume we'll see the polish scores later on... I also hope we'll see peer's comments at some point, not just their scores.)

I recommend all developers, particularly the ones who weren't finalists, to look at their scores. Without these it's just a win/lose contest. These let you see that some people did appreciate your game, and in my case most of the feedback was either useful or at least an opinion I could respect even if I disagreed. Some of them are things I'd fixed by contest end, and in fact my scores went up in the second week showing that maybe I was on the right track.

Highlights from my comments:
A couple people thought it wasn't fun. Fair enough. A few liked it quite a bit. "My mom is adicted(sic) to games like this. I'll pass it along." One person points out that it's only good for English-speaking players; I had resigned myself to that when I started, but the comment was deserved.

Best comment:

Quote:I respect all the hard work that goes into these games. This is meant to be constructive criticism.
First impression: Word Search. Boring.
Good: It's not just word search! Nice zen style puzzle game. Game play style is great. Music fits relaxed style of play.
Bad: Straight line should be default not freeform. Who wants to worry about mouse accuracy? Cover (title screen) does NOT fit style of play. Yes, it looks like a cheesy word search book cover, but... that's not really what this is. The simple understated play screen is what it's all about. The timer for the timed play is either too fast or needs an audible warning as it gets near the end. No options for size of board and no added bonuses etc make short term goals a little simplistic for continued play. What about having a slow timer that that triggers the letters falling into the blanks. In other words you can rack up a multiplier if you get many words before the other letters fall.
Overall: Simple but great. One of my favorites.

This person totally understood my game, including my cover page "theme", took it all apart and gave useful feedback. Wow.

Also got a good comment from someone about adding more polish to the game using Apple technologies like Rendezvous, OpenGL, transparency. I'm wondering if it was Rocco actually, since he breathes that stuff and knows better than most people what it can add to a game. Regardless of who it was, much appreciated.

Worst comment:

Quote:It is really annoying because the columns move down at different rates there is no skill to the game it is just luck

There's plenty of skill in the game, *particularly* in managing the columns. Gave me my lowest scores too. Oh well.

Quote:Impossible to figure out. Even the quick start guide didn't work for me.

Well as I suspected a lot of people did not get Industrial Revolution.

However I'm not at all bothered as I was making it for those who did such as:

Quote:Awesome game! Best strategy game I've seen, and a good historical recreation of the factories of the early industrial rev. Very original concept. One of the most complex games in udev 2004. I love the NWN-like UI. Congratulations!

It makes it all worth while.

Quote:Very nice, addictive game, somewhat educational,

Now if only Carlos was stilling going for a most educational game special award.

All I need to decide now is whether to concentrate on finishing the game, working on the board game version or playing with Torque Engine.

You are welcome. I hope everyone can use their data to progress as developers.

Quote: also hope we'll see peer's comments at some point, not just their scores.

Sadly, you won't because Peer voting didn't inlcude a feedback field. I had figured that with the forum everyone was already getting their feedback from peers. And yes, you will get the Polish data, as long as everyone promises not to stalk the Judges if they are not happy with the scores they got.

Quote:These let you see that some people did appreciate your game

Indeed. Some games that didn't win were very much liked.. even from the Judges from what they said.

Matt, I think your game was really well-thought out. With those "Rocco" technologies, and Polish, I REALLY think you had a Freeverse-type of game on your hands. I STRONGLY advise you not to put the game down, but go forward. I'm available for any game asset help.

As for your best Comment. The person, who is also an entrant, gave such in-depth reviews to every game if I recall! Amazing! I was so impressed, that I've asked him to be my special guest on MacRadio.

Quote:there'll always be someone who just "doesn't get it".

Too true, and feedback like that helps you build a thick skin. Might such feedback from the contest help some of you to reconsider adding/editing to your postmortems?

Quote:All I need to decide now is whether to oncentrate on finishing the game

Andrew, like Matt, I think you have a game with much potential. You can stop working on it and play around with learning that RTS tool, and not release anything for some time. Or you can work on the feedback, and looking at all aspects of your game, and turning it into a good shareware title. It too has Freeverse written all over it. Please don't stop working on it! Again, my assistance is also available for game asset help.

Well, I really look forward to seeing analysis of things like "What type of games did people over 30 like the best?", "What is the most sought after 'classic' game?"

It would also be fun to hear what your average was for the field, "What would you pay for this game?"

Hey, Jordan from the NeonSurge team (makers of SolarQuest) wrote a PHP script to parse the CSV files. We threw it up on our server for everyone to see. Please take a look at it, Jordan followed the judging scores instructions the closest he could. Check it out!

Please note, this doesn't take into account duplicates because of the same IP address, or other things that will be in the official vote. So do not take this as the FINAL vote, just as a estimate. Thanks!

Whoops, my bad. Of course I was thinking of the regular voting comment field.

Quote:And yes, you will get the Polish data, as long as everyone promises not to stalk the Judges if they are not happy with the scores they got.

Feel free to anonymize it, especially if the judges weren't universally aware that their comments might be attributed.

Quote:Matt, I think your game was really well-thought out. With those "Rocco" technologies, and Polish, I REALLY think you had a Freeverse-type of game on your hands. I STRONGLY advise you not to put the game down, but go forward. I'm available for any game asset help.

It means a great deal to me to hear you say that. I selected that particular game idea because I thought it had some long-term potential, and I am heartened to hear that some of that came out in the not-so-final product. I'm definitely considering further work on it in 2005.

NeonSurge Wrote:Hey, Jordan from the NeonSurge team (makers of SolarQuest) wrote a PHP script to parse the CSV files. We threw it up on our server for everyone to see. Please take a look at it, Jordan followed the judging scores instructions the closest he could. Check it out!

Please note, this doesn't take into account duplicates because of the same IP address, or other things that will be in the official vote. So do not take this as the FINAL vote, just as a estimate. Thanks!

- Andrew and Jordan

This list is a bit misleading. I stared at it for a long time before realizing that the scores weren't normalized.

It may be just as well, though, as it probably shouldn't even be up:

Carlos Camacho Wrote:I will ask all of you NOT to discuss who won what so as not to spoil our Award's Show.

Quote:I will ask all of you NOT to discuss who won what so as not to spoil our Award's Show.

I'm glad somone said that. It's a nice list, but shouldn't be up right now... Especially as it may lead to confusion once the real winners are posted.

Matt, have you played that Mac Scrabble game? It is freeware or shareware. I can't recall. I'm pretty sure it is marketed straight by the dev. Anyways, if you could add that kind of polish to your game, then it would be super. Also, think of a way that foreign dictionaries can be added. Because not only is that nice for native speakers of that language, but you can then tap into people wanting games to learn foreign languages. Cheers.

I forgot to mention, it looks like 5% of the people who downloaded Industrial Revolution voted on it and judging by the feedback and suggested acceptable prices I would be able to hit the 2% registration rate I've got with other platforms in the past .